Elinor married King Louis VII of France, when she was 15 and the marriage was annuled after 15 years. She was 30 then.
So, in a way, Elinor was elder-mother ( father's first wife) of the French King Philip-II !). in Shakespeare's play King John. Elinor was then and the French king , her step-son due to her earlier marriage to Louis-VII of France!
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King Richard (Lion heart ) and King Philip-II
were said to be very close friends!
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Philip was born in 1165. King Louis VII intended to make his son Philip co-ruler with him as soon as possible, -------------
In declining health, Louis VII had his 14-year-old son crowned and anointed as king at Reims on 1 November 1179 He was married on 1180 to Isabelle of Hainaut, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders, who brought the County of Artois as her dowry.
From the time of his coronation, all real power was transferred to Philip, Eventually, Louis died in 1180.
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Philip also began to wage war with King Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France.
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The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, in June 1183, began a dispute over the dowry of Philip's widowed sister Margaret. Philip insisted that the dowry should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, per the betrothal agreement.
The death in 1186 of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, began a new round of disputes, as Henry-II insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany.
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Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the issue of his other sister, Alys, Countess of Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Henry's son Richard I of England, nicknamed Richard the Lionheart.
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With these grievances, two years of combat followed (1186–1188), but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland, who were in rebellion against their father. He skilfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonsmoulins in November 1188.
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In 1189, Henry's health was failing. Richard openly joined forces with Philip to drive Henry into submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, losing Tours in the process, before forcing him to acknowledge Richard as his heir.
Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau (4 July 1189), Henry - II died two days later. His death, and the news of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.
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The Angevin kings of England (the line of rulers to which Henry II belonged), were Philip's most powerful and dangerous vassals as Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine and Counts of Anjou.
Philip made it his life's work to destroy Angevin power in France. One of his most effective tools was to befriend all of Henry's sons and use them to foment rebellion against their father.
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He maintained friendships with Henry the Young King and Geoffrey II until their deaths. Indeed, at the funeral of Geoffrey, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave.
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He broke off his friendships with Henry's younger sons Richard and John as each acceded to the English throne.
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Philip -II travelled to the Holy Land to participate in the Third Crusade of 1189–1192 with King Richard I of England and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.
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Philip was severely ill with dysentery, which reduced his zeal. Ties with Richard were further strained after the latter acted in a haughty manner after Acre fell to the crusaders.
Conflict with King Richard the Lionheart, 1191–1199
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The immediate cause of Philip's conflict with Richard the Lionheart stemmed from Richard's decision to break his betrothal with Phillip's sister Alys at Messina in 1191.
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Part of Alys's dowry that had been given over to Richard during their engagement was the territory of Vexin, which included the strategic fortress of Gisors. This should have reverted to Philip upon the end of the betrothal, but Philip, to prevent the collapse of the Crusade, agreed that this territory was to remain in Richard's hands and would be inherited by his male descendants. Should Richard die without an heir, the territory would return to Philip, and if Philip died without an heir, those lands would be considered a part of Normandy.
Returning to France in late 1191, Phillip-II began plotting to find a way to have those territories restored to him. He was in a difficult situation, as he had taken an oath not to attack Richard's lands while he was away on crusade.[15] The Third Crusade ordained territory was under the protection of the Church in any event. Philip had unsuccessfully asked Pope Celestine III to release him from his oath,[16] so he was forced to build his own casus belli.
Finally, Philip made contact with Prince John, Richard's brother, whom he convinced to join the conspiracy to overthrow the legitimate king of England.[16]
Richard was released from captivity on 1194. Richard had returned to England, and by 12 May he had set sail for Normandy with some 300 ships, eager to engage Philip in war.[17]
Philip had spent this time consolidating his territorial gains and by now controlled much of Normandy east of the Seine, while remaining within striking distance of Rouen. His next objective was the castle of Verneuil,[19] which had withstood an earlier siege. Once Richard arrived at Barfleur, he soon marched towards Verneuil. As his forces neared the castle, Philip, who had been unable to break through, decided to strike camp. Leaving a large force behind to prosecute the siege, he moved off towards Évreux, which Prince John had handed over to his brother to prove his loyalty.[19] Philip retook the town and sacked it, but during this time, his forces at Verneuil abandoned the siege, and Richard entered the castle unopposed on 30 May. Throughout June, while Philip's campaign ground to a halt in the north, Richard was taking a number of important fortresses to the south. Philip, eager to relieve the pressure off his allies in the south, marched to confront Richard's forces at Vendôme. Refusing to risk everything in a major battle, Philip retreated, only to have his rear guard caught at Fréteval on 3 July. This turned into a general encounter in which Philip barely managed to avoid capture as his army was put to flight.[19] Fleeing back to Normandy, Philip avenged himself on the English by attacking the forces of Prince John and the Earl of Arundel, seizing their baggage train.[19] By now both sides were tiring, and they agreed to the temporary Truce of Tillières.
War continually raged during 1195, when Philip once again besieged Verneuil.
Richard arrived to discuss the situation face to face.
During negotiations, Philip secretly continued his operations against Verneuil; when Richard found out, he left, swearing revenge.[19] Philip now pressed his advantage in northeastern Normandy, where he conducted a raid at Dieppe, burning the English ships in the harbor while repulsing an attack by Richard at the same time. Philip now marched southward into the Berry region. His primary objective was the fortress of Issoudun, which had just been captured by Richard's mercenary commander, Mercadier. The French king took the town and was besieging the castle when Richard stormed through French lines and made his way in to reinforce the garrison, while at the same time another army was approaching Philip's supply lines. Philip called off his attack, and another truce was agreed.[19]
The war slowly turned against Philip over the course of the next three years.
Political and military conditions seemed promising at the start of 1196 when Richard's nephew Arthur I, Duke of Brittany ended up in Philip's hands, and he won the Siege of Aumale, but Philip's good fortune did not last.
His successor was to be Otto IV, Richard's nephew, who put additional pressure on Philip.
Finally, many Norman lords were switching sides and returning to Richard's camp. This was the state of affairs when Philip launched his campaign of 1198 with an attack on Vexin. He was pushed back and then had to deal with the Flemish invasion of Artois.
On 27 September, Richard entered Vexin, taking Courcelles-sur-Seine and Boury-en-Vexin before returning to Dangu. Philip, believing that Courcelles was still holding out, went to its relief. Discovering what was happening, Richard decided to attack the French king's forces, catching Philip by surprise.
Philip -II soon planned a new offensive, launching raids into Normandy and again targeting Évreux. Richard countered Philip's thrust with a counterattack in Vexin, while Mercadier led a raid on Abbeville. The upshot was that by autumn 1198, Richard had regained almost all that had been lost in 1193.[20] In desperate circumstances, Philip offered a truce so that discussions could begin towards a more permanent peace, with the offer that he would return all of the territories except for Gisors.
In mid-January 1199, the two kings met for a final meeting, Richard standing on the deck of a boat, Philip standing on the banks of the Seine River.[21] Shouting terms at each other, they could not reach agreement on the terms of a permanent truce, but they did agree to further mediation, which resulted in a five-year truce that held. Later in 1199, Richard was killed during a siege involving one of his vassals.
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Conflict with King John, 1200–1206
In May 1200, Philip signed the Treaty of Le Goulet with Richard's successor John Lackland. The treaty was meant to bring peace to Normandy by settling the issue of its much-reduced boundaries.
The terms of John's vassalage were not only for Normandy, but also for Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. John agreed to heavy terms, including the abandonment of all the English possessions in Berry and 20,000 marks of silver, while Philip in turn recognised John as king of England, formally abandoning Arthur of Brittany's candidacy, whom he had hitherto supported, recognising instead John's suzerainty over the Duchy of Brittany. To seal the treaty, a marriage between Blanche of Castile, John's niece, and Louis the Lion, Philip's son, was contracted.
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This agreement did not bring warfare to an end in France, however, since John's mismanagement of Aquitaine led the province to erupt in rebellion later in 1200, a disturbance that Philip secretly encouraged.
[22] To disguise his ambitions, Philip invited John to a conference at Andely and then entertained him at Paris, and both times he committed to complying with the treaty.[22] In 1202, disaffected patrons petitioned the French king to summon John to answer their charges in his capacity as John's feudal lord in France. John refused to appear, so Philip again took up Arthur of Brittany's claims to the English throne and betrothed his six-year-old daughter Marie. In riposte John crossed over into Normandy. His forces soon captured Arthur, and in 1203, the young man disappeared, with most people believing that John had had him murdered. The outcry over Arthur's fate saw an increase in local opposition to John, which Philip used to his advantage.[22] He took the offensive and, apart from a five-month siege of Andely, swept all before him. After Andely surrendered, John fled to England. By the end of 1204, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine, had fallen into Philip's hands.[22]
What Philip had gained through victory in war, he sought to confirm by legal means. Philip, again acting as John's liege lord over his French lands, summoned him to appear before the Court of the Twelve Peers of France to answer for the murder of Arthur of Brittany.[23] John requested safe conduct, but Philip only agreed to allow him to come in peace, while providing for his return only if it were allowed to after the judgment of his peers. Not willing to risk his life on such a guarantee, John refused to appear, so Philip summarily dispossessed the English of all lands.[23] Pushed by his barons, John eventually launched an invasion of northern France in 1206. He disembarked with his army at La Rochelle during one of Philip's absences, but the campaign was a disaster.[23] After backing out of a conference that he himself had demanded, John eventually bargained at Thouars for a two-year truce, the price of which was his agreement to the chief provisions of the judgment of the Court of Peers, including a loss of his patrimony.[23]